Manjrekar questions Gill’s Kohli-like aggression: ‘You don't have to show it when you're captain’

Shubman Gill is leading India for the first time in the Test format in the ongoing Test series in England, a country where the team has won a total of three Test series’ since their first visit in 1932, the last of which occurred under Rahul Dravid’s leadership in 2007.

Gill has been impressive as leader as well as batter in the ongoing series, especially in the second Test where he registered his maiden win as red-ball captain with a commanding 336-run victory. However, there have been moments and phases where he has allowed the game to slip out of his grasp and allowed the Ben Stokes-led hosts to seize control.

As per former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, Gill's on-field flare-up with the English openers shortly before stumps on Day 3 at Lord’s was one such moment.

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Gill got into a heated exchange with Crawley over the latter’s delay tactics during Jasprit Bumrah’s over after India had finished level on scores with the visitors with a little over 15 minutes to go for stumps.

Also Read | 'Done for the series': Gill faces the heat from Duckett after Crawley spat

The 25-year-old skipper, however, couldn’t back his words with a match-winning score during India’s chase of the 193-run target on the following day as he was dismissed cheaply for 6. His team would eventually fall 22 runs short to hand the series lead back to the opposition.

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Manjrekar, for one, compared Gill with former India captain Virat Kohli, known for his fiery on-field demeanour and wasn’t shy of giving it back to the opposition from time to time.

‘With Virat Kohli, you could see that he was ready for a scrap’

Manjrekar added that it wasn’t necessary for Gill to show Kohli-like aggression after becoming the Test captain, adding that he would have exhibited it in the six years that have gone by since he made his India debut in January 2019.

“And just to extend on that point, if Shubman Gill had that kind of a fiery side to him, we would have seen it a little earlier. You don’t have to show it when you’re captain. Or did he show it because he’s got this confidence now that he’s won a Test match and he’s got so many runs?” Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.

“Because with Virat Kohli, you could see that he was ready for a scrap. He was always waiting to get in the thick of things. Even when he wasn’t a captain, you could see him coming in there. So that was a trait that we’d seen even before he was captain. With Shubman Gill, I’ve never seen it before,” he continued.

Also Read | Ex-selector praises Gill's leadership, says India need to move on from Rohit, Kohli

The cricketer-turned-commentator crucially added that while Gill was dismissed cheaply a day after his verbal battle with the English openers, such on-field face-offs made Kohli an even better batter, and it was pressure situations that often brought out the best in him.

“The thing with Virat Kohli was that he would get even more fired up and become a better batter (if things got nasty). What disappointed me with Shubman Gill and that is why I was wondering, where is Shubman Gill heading? Because that seemed like it didn’t have the right effect on Shubman Gill the batter.

“He came out looking very tentative and, you know, these days we are privy to the stump mic and we could hear the things being said and there were some personal attacks made. This could be a new experience for Shubman Gill because these days, as you can see, you know, with Indian players, there’s mostly friendly reception from a lot of foreign teams. So this was new territory. And he looked tentative and wasn’t up for it,” he added.

Despite facing a couple of setbacks in the form of defeats at Headingley (five wickets) and Lord’s (22 runs), Gill still has the opportunity to collect a rare series win on English soil on captaincy debut with two Tests still to be played against Stokes and Co.

For that to happen, however, India will have to win the fourth Test that gets underway at Manchester’s Old Trafford from Wednesday.